


Louder Than God's Revolver (And Twice As Shiny)

by grimmauxillatrix



Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Canon-Typical Violence, Drift Bond, F/M, Jaeger Pilots, Kylo Ren Has Issues, M/M, Multi, Multiple Pairings, POV Multiple, Pacific Rim AU, Rey is Wedge's daughter, get ready for Marshal Leia Organa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 07:22:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5958658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimmauxillatrix/pseuds/grimmauxillatrix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Pacific Rim AU everyone wanted, but was too afraid to ask for.</p><p>Two years ago, a young woman had joined the Pan Pacific Defense Corps with the not-small goal of saving the world. Today, two years and a lot of growth later, Rey Antilles sat at a cafeteria table, bouncing her leg in anticipation of meeting the partner she was going to save the world with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Making Acquaintances, Finding Partners

Two years ago, a young woman from Liverpool, barely befitting the title, had joined the Pan Pacific Defense Corps with the not-small goal of saving the world. Today, two years and a lot of growth later, Rey Antilles sat at a cafeteria table, bouncing her leg in anticipation of meeting the partner she was going to save the world with. 

 

A lot had changed since she’d joined up with the PPDC at nineteen, shocked into action when the Kaiju attacked and then forced to wait until she was legally old enough to do anything. A year and a half of preliminary training, tests to see if she could even be able to join the vaunted Jaeger program, had dampened the idea that this would be easy. Six more months of grueling hard work in the Academy, growing alongside the Jaegers, had abolished her of the notion that this was going to be glorious, revolutionary work with little effort and all gain. But Rey Antilles was still going to save the world. 

 

A clearing of a throat and an awkward glance brought her out of her intense daydreaming. A fellow cadet- one time rival, when she was going to be the  _ best  _  and the  _ only  _ one at the top, now best friend- Finn stood before her, clearly wondering if he was allowed to join or if she was too far in her dream. She pats the bench next to her and he slides in, painfully trying to keep a regulated distance and failing.

 

“Now we wait, yeah?” He asks, and she nods, leg bouncing higher with increased nervous energy. 

 

“Yeah,” she responds, giving him half a grin and a lot of poorly repressed nerves. “Wonder who it’s gonna be.”

 

They had wrapped up final exams and preliminary Drift compatibility tests in the previous week. Today was announcement day, when the cadets were told if they had scrubbed or passed, and those who had passed who they’d be test partnered with. 

 

“If it’s anyone other than you, I’ll be shocked.” Rey jokes, turning on the bench to face him. “We did good together in the Academy, didn’t we?” 

 

“Yeah, but I don’t know if they take that into consideration.” Finn says, still too serious in this moment of doubt. He glances at her, then down at his hands, splayed across the table. “Won’t they try to challenge us by throwing us with someone new?” 

 

Rey had to admit, she didn’t know. The Academy teachers had seemed to delight in hurling them into unfamiliar situations. Assignments were based on raw Drift compatibility, not on familiarity. It would be nice to be partnered with someone she knew. She hoped that siblings and twins weren’t the only ones who enjoyed that privilege. 

 

She’s about to voice her feelings on the matter, to infuse her hope into the dismal atmosphere Finn was creating, when someone slides in to sit across from them.

Poe Dameron, one time fighter pilot and current Jaeger pilot cadet, was highly interesting and highly discussed among the younger candidates. A veteran, he had been shunted into the Jaeger program by superiors who had been convinced it was for the best. Dameron was a very, very good pilot. He was also very, very good at being a pain in the ass to ranking superiors, through his aura of informality and mischievous good humor. The Rangers were more willing to overlook slides in professional behavior, and Dameron was willing to pilot a Jaeger with as much guts and glory as he did aircraft.

 

“So, what’s the good news?”

 

Neither Finn nor Rey knew what they had done to attract Dameron’s unrelenting, friendly attention. Personal backstories? Being younger than usual, while he was older than usual? But it was there, and there he was, their friendly third party, always willing to bring alcohol in and help out, and to comfort the two kids unused to the grueling mental strain basic training brought.

 

“Nothing yet,” Finn responds after taking a moment to look at his phone. No calls, no messages. Radio silence on their announcements. 

 

“Well it’s good to know the PPDC is as good as keeping in touch as my ex.” Dameron jokes, putting both elbows on the table and leaning in. “We might be here for a while, then.” He leans back, seemingly as restless as Rey’s leg despite his relaxed demeanor. He puts his phone down between the two younger cadets. “I’ll go get us drinks. Yell for me when the announcements come out.” He stands again and saunters off towards the concessions, waggling his hand in time to an invisible beat, which Rey has learned by now meant that the older pilot was more nervous than he wanted to let on. 

 

Dameron had been gone for about a minute when his phone began vibrating. Classic, always when the owner wasn’t there. Finn and Rey looked at each other nervously, then Finn took the lead and swiped the phone open, tapping speakerphone as they both leaned in to listen to the announcement.    
  
“Poe Dameron, Rey Antilles, Finn Okonjo.” The robotic, calm voice said, staticky over the tinny speakers. “Please report to Drift Sync Testing immediately.” The message repeated as Rey and Finn’s phones buzzed in their pockets, and the two young pilots stared at each other in disbelief.

 

“Three?” Rey demanded, brow furrowed in confusion. “You can’t pilot a Jaeger with three! Its never been done!” 

 

Finn shrugged and stood up on the bench, cupping his hands around his mouth. “POE!” He shouts, causing heads to lift across the cafeteria. Dameron himself looks surprised, three mugs in hand at the coffee machine. Finn beckons him back with an exaggerated wave of his hand. “Come on Poe! They’re calling!”

  
Later, Rey realizes that that was the first time either of them had called Poe by his first name. 


	2. Connection Closed By Foreign Host

Well, here he was again. After all the effort, the time, the tears, the long sleepless nights spent contemplating who he was and what he wanted to be, Kylo Ren was once more under the command of Leia Organa. She was Marshal now, not retired Naval Captain, but it was all the same anyway. He had been hoping to be assigned to Anchorage, or Lima. Instead he was in pissing Los Angeles Shatterdome, under Marshal Organa’s unknowingly watchful eye.

 

He hadn’t made himself known to his mother, these ten years since they had last seen each other and spoken, and changed his name twice since. He was still fuming, the same way he had back when he’d been called Ben, mama’s boy, good for nothing, everything gained because of his mother’s rank and adoptive grandfather’s political clout, nothing earned. Ren had fought and clawed his way through preliminary basic training, had fought and clawed his way through the Jaeger Academy, determined to be good at this and not just because his mother had helped him along. 

 

Then he discovered his mother was the pissing Marshal. 

 

It was really amazing how fate seemed to be determined to take every accomplishment he had and set it on fire. 

 

He tugs absent-mindedly on the facemask he’d made a habit of wearing over his mouth and nose, masking his features from the casual observer, and hopefully the Marshal as well. It was in his good fortune that eccentricity was tolerated among Rangers, especially among those from the San Francisco Bay Area. He did ride on that, as he was from the area and he had been there when Trespasser had decided to charge right through. Just passing through, ironically, through his former home town, when the Kaiju decided to as well. 

 

Pulling himself out of the past, Ren attempts to focus on his current source of bitterness, rather than past upsets. He was here to meet his new co-pilot, some Brendol Hux the Second or other. What a pretentious name. He would bet a large amount of money that the man himself would live up to it. This was the source of his current irritation, then. The aloof guy got paired with the asshole. 

 

The door beside the bench he’s lounging on slides open, and in strides the most brilliant shock of neatly combed ginger hair Ren has ever seen in his life. Underneath the hair was a pale, scowling face, bobbing atop a freakishly neat Ranger uniform. It looked ironed. The uniform thrusts out a gloved hand at Ren, who is still lounging on the bench in shock. 

“Ranger Brendol Hux the Second.” He barks, eyes sweeping up and down Ren’s almost prone figure. “Pleased to meet you.”

 

Ren manages to get himself up off the bench into a vaguely standing position, noting with no small delight that he did stand a few inches taller than this Hux character. He takes the offered hand and shakes it briefly. 

 

“You are Kylo Ren, I presume?” Hux barks again, and Ren nods. He doesn’t really feel like dignifying the interrogation with anything more than a gesture. Hux is about to bark something else when the Los Angeles base’s Assault Specialist appears in the doorway.

 

A very, very tall, very blonde and very dangerous British woman who bore an incredible moniker, Captain Phasma was a woman who did not deal well with the nonsense of newly-minted Rangers. “Good, you’re both here.” She says, without preamble. “Let’s get to it, I have three more pairs after you.”

 

She turns and strides away, leaving no room for questions as to why the base’s Assault Specialist was the one leading new Rangers through their first official Drift. Perhaps she was going to stand there and shout at them when they went out of alignment. 

 

* * *

 

It was unfortunate, Ren concluded, that Hux looked very nice in a drive suit, and was generally very pretty, easy on the eyes once one got past the hair. It made Ren want to forgive him for the fiasco that became of their first Drift.

 

Drifting with Hux was something along the lines of pushing two identical magnetic poles together. Neither of them were willing to open up to each other, and they fell out of alignment more often than they were able to join. Phasma had berated them, loudly and with no restraint. 

 

“It is amazing that you two are even Rangers!” She had concluded, hands on her hips, blonde hair rakishly hanging over one eyebrow. “Perhaps you were placed together because you refused to open up to anyone else, which, in my opinion, is foolish.” She pushes her hair back and continues, less loudly but no less irritated. “Since your assignment has been processed, it is not up to me to reject you two, since you both allegedly show great promise. It is, however, not up to me to make sure you succeed either. I highly recommend that you two get your heads out of your asses, before we waste any more resources on either of you.” With that statement she marches away, leaving the two shell-shocked rangers to stare at each other. 

  
“This is your fault!” Hux hisses, and throws his water bottle at Ren’s face. Ren manages to catch it and stares in sudden fury at the other man, who is stomping away out of the locker room. His fault? How was he supposed to communicate with that stuffed shirt who threw up walls every time Ren tried to get something more than a handshake? Idiot. He throws the water bottle at the trashcan, whips his towel off of his shoulders and at a locker, and then kicks the water bottle into a wall when it fails to land in the garbage. He’ll fucking show that Hux. He’ll show him it was the ginger’s fault all along. 


End file.
